ABSTRACT
Climate change and the resulting damage and unforeseeable risks that come with it have led to ‘transformation’ and ‘transition’ becoming familiar catchwords in social science discourses. They are also terms that are now increasingly penetrating into public and political debates. The position taken by the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) clearly illustrates the current relevance of the concepts of transition and transformation. In its flagship report published in 2011 with the title World in Transition – A Social Contract for Sustainability, the WBGU calls for a departure from the prevailing ‘model of prosperity based on the unlimited availability of fossil fuels and other resources’ (WBGU 2011: 84). ‘What is needed now’, it continues, ‘is a new “storyline” to further develop both human civilisation as well as the terms “modernisation” and “development” ’ (ibid.). This storyline must include a decarbonisation of the world economy as an integral narrative theme. The WBGU report refers in this context to studies carried out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in which the extent, development corridors and probable consequences of the continued acceleration of climate change as a result of human activities are identified based on a comprehensive comparison of primary scientific findings (IPCC 2007, 2014). Given climate change and the negative effects it is already having on the present-day conditions of existence and life on our planet – effects which will only intensify in future – the WBGU report calls emphatically on politicians to implement a transformation strategy. According to the WBGU, this strategy should establish a new social contract as the basis for transforming the existing economic order into an environmentally-friendly and sustainable alternative. Its report emphasises that the complexity of the called-for
Great Transformation goes well beyond changes which are, at their core, technological . . . The most difficult changes which must be brought about in order to achieve the Great Transformation transcend technologies – changing lifestyles, for instance, or revolutionising global cooperation, overcoming policy-related barriers, and dealing responsibly with permanent, cross-generational changes.
